Thread: Should i keep my thoughts and feelings for LD for myself and only talk about on the internet?

There's not really any harm in talking to others about lucid dreaming. You might convince them to try it, or you might even find that they are already lucid dreamers themselves! A little healthy excitement can make you more motivated to lucid dreaming and can increase your chances of success.

It's fairly common to have recall and LD dry spells. I wouldn't worry about it too much. As for your techniques, however, it's generally best to master one or two techniques than to be kind of okay on multiple techniques. So I would suggest sticking with your first technique.

I tried telling my family once, not directly but I created little hints of it to slowly introduce them to it. Then they usually tell me it's not healthy to dream so much and I need to sleep instead. Now I've stopped talking about it all together, except to my friends at school who were more interested and who actually already knew a little bit about it.

Fortunately, my family is very open when talking about these topics or subjects like lucid dreaming or astral projection, out of body experiences, etc. I do notice however, that they're not actually interested in learning to lucid dream. I mean, they kind of understand the idea, as well as the fact that it's possible to do it. However, they think lucid dreaming doesn't offer any practical use that one could benefit from in the waking physical reality.

It depends on who you chose to talk to about this; normally I only mention it to people who I know are open minded and know I can talk to without feeling them thinking I'm crazy or something. What happens next is entirely on their part, if they're hooked and want to learn more, then I'll be glad to offer them some guidance. If, on the contrary, they aren't particularly interested in the topic, then that's that, and there's nothing I can do about it. Some people understand these things, others don't want to hear about it.

There's nothing wrong with briefly mentioning it, as long as you don't keep talking about it even when they show obvious signs of not being interested.

Unfortunately, most people seem to be very unfamiliar with the very idea of exploring different mental states.
When I try to tell people about lucid dreaming their reaction is usually something like "I don't understand...?" and then when I explain it in more detail, with perfect definitions ("a lucid dream is a dream where you understand that you are dreaming" etc) they quickly change the subject.
They seem rather uncomfortable with the idea of becoming lucid in dreams.

I guess the reason for this is because our culture tends to not value dreams very much, and are dismissed as "random images during the night", so the idea of actually being just as alive and aware in a dream as in waking life might sound bizarre.
They might feel like it's similar to seeing vivid hallucinations in waking life, and "getting absorbed into things that are not real".
Anyway, I personally consider dreams just as real as waking life, they are just a different kind of reality - a "mental reality".
I think of dreams that way because our dreams are 100% based on our own inner thoughts, feelings an desires, whereas waking life is based on external objects and physical laws that are independent of ourselves, which is more of a "physical reality".

I've often heard the misconception of losing sleep due to LD-ing, but that is not the case. In my experience, I feel more rested and alert if I have a night full of dreaming, not to mention more creative and enthusiastic about living if I can remember what beautiful craziness my dreaming mind came up with. I certainly agree with Laurelindo's message about it being a "mental reality", which I've also referred to it as a "complete personal reality", one in which the fabric of space is yours to fold and mend. With that being said, who wouldn't want to learn to harness their dreaming ability? What harm is there in staying alert during sleep?

"I don't understand what lucid dreaming is about. Tell me more information about it and then I'll form an opinion"...

...said no-one ever.

Originally Posted by Bobblehat

"I don't understand what lucid dreaming is about. Tell me more information about it and then I'll form an opinion"...

...said no-one ever.

What I do nowadays is that I deliberately make sure to be around lots of people whenever I feel like reading Exploring The World Of Lucid Dreaming.
There is a small chance that someone might notice the book cover and might feel like mentioning something about it.

I have no big hopes that any natives from my country will do something like that (it's not exactly the Swedish norm to randomly approach strangers in everyday life;
it happens sometimes, but certainly not "often") - but hey, my school is full of exchange students, so maybe someone from a more social country might notice it.

2 years ago when I first learned about it, I tried to tell my friends about it, but they just laughed at me and doubted it. Their loss >. But having someone IRL to talk to that is just as enthusiastic as you could be very helpful in keeping you motivated. Especially, if you are good friends with them, you could talk about it a lot and put together some competitions like first to do something in a LD wins. Unfortunately, I have no friends IRL who talk about it even though sometimes I mention it, so the forum is a great alternative as well. I wouldn't say that it's harmful to talk about it off the internet though.

Welcome to dreamviews, here is a place where you will *never* be ridiculed for talking about lucid dreaming. I only talk about it with people who either: 1) are from dreamviews, or 2) I know are dreamers or open to spiritual experiences, into meditation, etc. (exactly one of these, who was very receptive and said he'd actually been in to lucid dreaming a while ago in his past).

So make friends here and chat away, we're all sort of in the same boat!

I regularly mention lucid dreaming on my Facebook profile, but I never ever get any responses whatsoever, not even Likes, which I usually get at least a few times on the things I post.
It's completely dead, nobody writes any comments on it, nobody Shares it, and nobody seems to care in any way whatsoever.
They don't even show any normal curiosity, like "lucid dreaming? what's that?" - it's like they are thinking "lucid dreaming sounds weird... better not go there".

Not just lucid dreaming, generally most people just seem really awkward about "new" concepts.

It's the same with mnemotechnics, you have no idea how much I've tried telling people about it, I've even held a small workshop at university, people agreed it was useful but didn't seem to really realise how useful. Until they get an LD or end up using a memory technique they just seem to have trouble internalising the new information, it all just "sounds" great.

I guess eventually you, well, grow up and realise that self-improvement is something genuinely important in life. Or you don't, oh well.


Then again perhaps we just need to market it better, you can sell anything with the right spin on it right?

This question comes up a bit. I tend to keep it mainly to myself, but I've mentioned to one of my close mates. He was super interested and wanted an easy/lazy technique. Told him about DEILD but he found it too hard. And only briefly to my Dad when Lucid Dreaming came up on a news program we were watching.
I'm different to a lot of my mates, I'm definitely on the introvert side of things, so a lot probably wouldn't be into it. I do intend to mention it to more people but I want to get really good at it first so I can explain "my" experiences and not other peoples experiences. I think they would listen to me and become more interested that way.
If only lucid dreaming was a lot more mainstream, it would be awesome. That's why I love this place. I can finally talk about my experiences and listen to other peoples and learn. Hopefully I can convince at least one into practicing it so we can share our stories.

It's great that you have told people and they have taken some interest in it, and not think you're a little odd. Maybe just pick the right people to tell or just TELL EM and don't get a SHIT if they think it's silly or weird

Two out of five is great, keep doing what has worked, dry spell's happen to everyone. I mainly just hope you don't get frustrated. I find it's important to enjoy the process even if you fail over and over, because many lucid dream journeys await you.
Personally i'm a bit of a loner or introvert, so i get most excitement and motivation from myself, i read ebooks, daily RC's practice techniques, read DV's, meditation and so on.
However it is nice to talk to people about LD's once in awhile when something cool happened's, its normal to want to share. Just have to find that sort of open minded person and then still be mindful of not going overboard as most society attach little importance to dreams unfortunately and so much value to materialism.
People need to personally experience a LD to see just how crystal clear and amazing lucid dreaming is, you could talk to your blue in the face with excitement and you will not get much interest from some people. You might even frighten some if you mention a WILD.

I mainly keep it to myself but I did told my girlfriend about it and she's practicing it now